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Curious what fans think - do you want a cost reduced 20.00 figure?

I've seen a lot of comments today on Facebook about Fangman not being worth $25/$27.00. I wish it was less expensive to make these figures but reality being what it is, production/material costs have risen necessitating this price increase (that in all fairness we announced back in July!).

As we start looking at a potential 2014 line, do fans want the same quality/accessories and package we have now, or would you prefer we found ways to cost reduce the figures back down to $20.00? This would likely include things like very minimal packaging (i.e. a polly bag), no accessories and reduced deco.

What say you? Keep as is or go for a less expensive version of figures that can come in closer to $20.00? Just curious what everyone's thoughts are.

I dont want poly bagged figs with no accessories. I want what we have for the price we are paying, if that means the paint aps are great and the accessories are worthy. I think with the higher price we should continue to get 2 accessories per figure and I do not count, nor have you in the past, a cape as an accessory.

Keep figures as they are at $25.00; however, many fans have problems with paying that much for an adult collectible, then the quality being poor or Matty/DR customer service being very difficult to work with as documented time after time, incident after incident.

I've seen a lot of comments today on Facebook about Fangman not being worth $25/$27.00. I wish it was less expensive to make these figures but reality being what it is, production/material costs have risen necessitating this price increase (that in all fairness we announced back in July!).

As we start looking at a potential 2014 line, do fans want the same quality/accessories and package we have now, or would you prefer we found ways to cost reduce the figures back down to $20.00? This would likely include things like very minimal packaging (i.e. a polly bag), no accessories and reduced deco.

What say you? Keep as is or go for a less expensive version of figures that can come in closer to $20.00? Just curious what everyone's thoughts are.

Scott

Keep it as-is! The people who are complaining about the price increase have no clue how lucky we have it. Trying to compare the price of this line to full retail doesn't work... I liken it to something more direct, with limited production, like DC Collectibles' Ame-Comi figures which, in the same timeframe that MOTUC has been around, went from a starting $40 price tag to the last figures sporting a $70 price tag. A 75% price tag is hard to swallow, especially when for almost a whole year the figures produced were straight up repaints of previously released figures released at or near the original pricing.

We have one price increase for sub holders in that time and, while 25% is a large chunk at one time, it's a drop in the bucket compared to what other direct, low-production lines have seen. And we get newly tooled parts with every figure, 12+ regular figures a year...

Besides, reducing the packaging to polybag while also reducing accessories and deco would not fit any fan's collecting habits. MOC collectors would be left out because there wouldn't be anything OC. Openers (like myself) would be left out because one of the draws is the accessories available for posing and action shots. Both groups would be left out by the reduced deco because the figures wouldn't fit in with the current figures and their full(er) deco.

I say keep it the same. Please don't let a few bad apples spoil this for the rest of us who love the line so much as it is.

By the way, Fangman is totally worth the price, and the people complaining most likely don't like the FILMation influence more than anything else. The sculpt, the accessories, the deco detail... All of these things come together to make this a $25/$27 value unless you just don't like the character or cartoon influence. Then no amount of sculpt, accessories or deco detail will make it worth even $15.

I would not purchase a figure without the current packaging as I am a MOC collector. $25 is too much for these figures though. You can go down the toy line at any shop and see similar style figures for $10 or less. Granted, that is retail and produced on a larger scale. Still, it's very hard to believe that $25 is the lowest that can be done for these figures. The profit margin must be quite large for these, but I know you can't comment to that end. With tax and shipping (why is it $9.99 with such a slow shipper? I can ship USPS for cheaper on same weight/box size) I pay about $37 for ONE figure. It's just getting too crazy. I love the line and the details in the figures, but if this cost does not go back to $20 next year, I'll have to give it up. I have been with you guys from the first edition of King Grayskull from SDCC, but I can't pay that much for ONE regular-sized plastic figure. If you wanted to go back to shipping them all at the end of the year together or maybe two times a year to save the insane shipping cost, that might sway the decision for me to keep collecting. There's my 2 cents and hope it helps.

Keep everything the same. Most figures are around $20-$30 in the collector markets. The New 52 JLA figures are $20 each and nowhere near the MOTUC quality. I want the same quality I've been getting since 2008 (which I know some people will say "what quality? Matty's QC stinks, etc."). If we are going to finish this line in the next 2-3 years, let's keep everything consistent. This is the BEST toy line out there!! It doesn't take even a dollar a day to buy one figure (excluding shipping, tax). If you're buying 2 figures, like I am, it's not really that hard to budget. I have a family and bills like many others and I can still reasonably afford to buy these dollies and other things. If people don't want to buy them at these prices then that's perfectly understandable. Everyone has their limits. I, for one, am not ready to give up on this line

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Poly-bagging figures means we would lose a good chunk of MOC buyers, and would hurt the line.

I wouldn't mind less accessories as long as we got what at least came with the vintage figure. Fisto for example, his vintage sword was good enough for me. I'm in the minority here, but I didn't mind the accessory-less Stratos. I think offering multiple weapons packs would be a nice alternative to get those extra weapons for figures. But if we go to less accessories, that could hurt the sub numbers, as those folks who put them on shelves for posing will want various accessories.

It's a catch 22. What we could shed away might also shed sub buyers. Since this such a tiny line, we can't afford to lose anyone.

I think the best way to keep buyers happy with the current $25 price is by looking into a better distributor. I haven't had as many problems as others, but I realize Digitial River is the real issue. Bad customer service, even once in awhile, can leave a bad taste in the mouthes of customers. Why else do people pay much more through companies like BBTS just to avoid DR?

I think that's the problem. If you go to a nice restaurant, and encounter bad service, it normally will ruin the whole experience. Working on fixing DR and shipping prices would go a long way to making subbers fine with paying a few extra bucks on the figure themselves.

Whatever you do, don't reduce the deco! The figure is the only reason we're buying the figures

I'd rather pay $25 but the shipping price needs addressed. I can justify paying the current purchase price but the shipping is the biggest draw back. No other retailer charges anything close to the current rates Matty is charging.

We're doing fine as-is, though I wouldn't mind poly bags. The packaging gets tossed out anyway (save for the bios) and then the accessories wouldn't be shoved into the figure's hands. BUT...I doubt we'll do that.

Nah, just stop listening to people. It's the only way. Do what other companies do and cut us off; it'll only get worse. The more you feed us, the more we'll bite your hands. We're incapable of comparing you to other companies 'cause other companies don't give us a way of knowing when things are coming. If you delay things? We freak. If anyone else does? ...well, how would we know? Then of course, no one is capable of seeing problems with other toylines 'cause they're in the store. Errors on figures get left behind on the shelves, whereas with a toyline that is only online, the errors end up in the hands of the consumers, making people think that YOU make more errors than anyone else.

Nah, truth is that these figures are going for what they should, given the current market. You're doing an okay job. Things ain't perfect, but things rarely are. You just keep trying to improve like you have, and we'll keep telling you how it's not enough. Law of the wild.

"Since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking." ~ Tock, the Watchdog

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Please leave things as they are Scott. People have to stop thinking on the cheap and looking for 2008 prices as that only takes away from every figure (paint deco, cut accessories etc).

I want the great looking deco and all the accessories the $5.00 sub increase promised. I'm tired of cut accessories or black plastic being used to cut cost on mattels end when prices have increased for raw materials. Fans just have to accept that they had a great $20.00 run for 4 years straight and now they have to pay $25.00 as a sub holder or $27 if they choose to cherry pick.

Why are you listening to the "loud minority" now, Scott? You never used to before.

Don't listen to the "loud minority" saying Fang Man is not worth $25/27. He most certainly is worth it! He's a great figure with excellent paint applications and 3 accessories. That's fantastic.

In answer to your question, Keep MOTUC AS IS. The packaging is great and I consider part of the collectible factor of the figure. Maintain the higher level of paint applications and accessories. It's these high level qualities that make the line worth collecting and stand out above other toy lines. It's why so many other brands have tried copying it.

We love MOTUC for how it is. It's the greatest toy line on the market. Making it anything less would defeat the point of making them and, more to the point, collecting them. DO NOT let the last years of MOTUC be reduced to something less than great.

If you cost reduce MOTUC, you'll end the line prematurely. More people will stop buying the figures, because no one will be satisfied buying something "sub par" to what they used to get, knowing it could have been better.

I would be fine with figures of the same quality and number of accessories but in far simpler packaging. I'd be fine with a polybag and a bio card, but then again, I'm not a MOC collector. You could also get rid of that white mailer box to save money.

Don't cut paint apps. If anything, scale back the accessories released per figure and then put additional newly tooled ones in weapons packs once a year.

"Mattel's policy of things being seen as a failure if they don't sell out in minutes still annoys the hell out of me." — .org Member paulioscorchio

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I am fine to pay for what it is now, an I will continue to support the Classics brand till its end [REGARDLESS OF COSTS].
But if we can drop $1 or $2 by using only [pollybags ONLY as packaging] but not loose any accessories to cut back a $1 or $2... to get some fans back on board the brand... I say go for it, as I display them loose anyway.

$27 is too much in my opinion, and figure in the bloated shipping charges $37 figures here....I get all we get, but I mean anything over what things are now, and people will just stop collecting, and the ones with deeper pockets won't sustain the line alone. I mean shipping is what's going to kill things followed by the figure prices....I have a sub, and I only did it for the $25 price....that is the only reason I am still in this line at the moment, any higher than $25 and I am done once i get my last 4 figures.

I am happy with what we get now, although I was ****** about a few figures in 2012....Black Plastic....missing deco & accessories....figures being made to POP that did not need it (Stinkor).

And you claimed no figure hike in 2014....is that still so? Or will we end up seeing things like DB Skeletor, Mek, Spikor...etc again? A lot depends on me subbing again in 2014.

That all being said about the already crap cost cutting & poor design choices done previously, to maintain unity, the line has to stay as it is now, or you might as well just start over with a new line, or release a lot of Weapons Packs to compensate for the missing accessories.

I'm fine with things the way they are. I think Fangman is worth what we are paying.

I will go with whatever will give the line longevity. If the difference between getting one more year is eliminating packaging and a weapon, I say yeah, let's do that. But I prefer things the way they are. But getting Blade and Glimmer and Saurod and Angella, etc is important to me.

I can deal with less accessories or if you want to make a weapons pack for those that do want to spend the extra dollars that is ok too.

I'd rather keep things the way they are. If we can get to the end of 2015 without another price hike, I think fans will come to accept the new price, and the benefits of it.

Packaging really doesn't matter to me, but paint deco and accessories are what put this line above and beyond a retail line, and what make them so much better than even the 200x line. So much was sacrificed for price-point, and that's why the Stactions look a hundred times better than the toyline.

The figures we're getting are top-quality. If you can do that for less money, great. If not, don't mess with the current formula.